Words Related to Your Pet Turtle or Tortoise

Turtles and tortoises are not your run-of-the-mill pets, and if you choose to add a chelonian (a turtle or tortoise) to your family, you may want to broaden your vocabulary beyond what you need when talking about more, uh, ordinary pets. The terms here are some of the words used in reference to turtles and tortoises:

Aquatic turtle: A turtle that spends all or the majority of its time in the water

Basking site or basking area: An area for a turtle or tortoise to absorb warmth from sunshine or another heat source

Brackish water: Fresh water that receives some salt water from the ocean during high tides, making it more salty than fresh

Carapace: The top shell covering the back

Carnivore: A meat eater

Carrion: Decaying flesh that may be used for food

Chelonians: All turtles and tortoises

Clutch: A nest of eggs

Estivates: Hibernates in summer

Hatchlings: Baby turtles or tortoises

Herbivore: A plant eater

Keel: A ridge in the carapace, usually from front to rear so that it is over or parallels the spine

Omnivore: Eats both meat and plants

Plastron: The lower shell

Scute: A single surface section of the shell; each shell is made up of many scutes with underlying skeletal bone

Semi-aquatic turtle: A turtle that spends about half of its time in the water and half of its time on land

Semi-terrestrial turtle: A turtle that spends most of its time on land but also goes into the water once in a while

Side-necked turtle: When this type of turtle shelters its head, the neck folds to the side but does not disappear into the shell

Terrarium: An aquarium or cage that contains live plants, a higher humidity, and no swimming water

Terrestrial turtle: A turtle that lives on land but bathes or soaks in water or goes into the water to escape predators

Tortoise: A land-based chelonian that can’t swim and only goes into shallow water to drink or soak; a tortoise never voluntarily enters water over its head

Vent: Equivalent to an anal opening

Vivarium: An aquarium divided into two sections — one for water and one for land